Crew are the nuts and bolts of the superyachting operation, and thus, recruitment is an integral procedure to ameliorate. So, why has the take-up of technology that can add value, streamline this operation and reduce costs, for both recruiters and crew applicants, been so slow?

For three years now, TUV Consulting, which offers crew recruitment consultancy, has been developing a video interviewing platform. The programme allows recruiters to gauge whether candidates have the right personality and experience to join a crew.

We originally developed the software more for land-based companies because the original bandwidth required to stream the videos was very high, says Titta Uoti-Visnen, owner of TUV Consulting.

We needed to find another solution for yachting, she continues. The system we use now only requires a 0.3-megabyte upload speed normal speed on land is around 0.5 to 0.7-megabytes and for those based on yachts, the system is cloud-based, so a captain will only need access to the cloud to see videos.

What the company is offering, essentially, is a tool to simplify the recruitment process for recruitment agencies and management companies. Im not trying to steal business, or create a crew database, or anything like that, she adds.

With the video interviews being recorded, a big perk of the procedure is the opportunity for additional reviews of the applicants. As Uoti-Visnen says, the final verdict is not simply based on the captains word.

Another major benefit we see is catering for time differences. You dont have to set aside time for a conference call, which benefits the candidate and the captain, who will have a very busy schedule.

This is not mind-blowing technology, and it neednt be if it can add value and is practical. Dock walking remains one of the most fruitful job application processes, but its old-fashioned. And it's an unprofessional approach to recruitment for an industry trying to professionalise.

Thereare many strong candidates who cant afford to go dock walking in Antibes or Palma for weeks, so this also helps the candidates, and ultimately, the yachts.

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Hiring the selfie generation - Superyacht News - The Superyacht Report

As the future of video continues its move into our pockets, all artists and musicians should keep in mind how their videos will play on a mobile platform. Here we look at four different tips for optimizing your video to make sure it will hold up to a phone or tablet.

_________________________

Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0

One of the things that we have to be aware of when making a video these days is how it will play on a mobile device. Heres an excerpt from the YouTube chapter of my Social Media Promotion For Musicians book that provides 4 tips to make sure that your video is effective on a phone or tablet.

Mobile viewers watch videos a lot longer than they do on their desktops. In order to maintain that attention, its important to observe the following:

1. Avoid using tiny text. Make sure that any text you use is readable on any screen that the video might be viewed on, especially a smartphone.

2. Make sure the audio is clear. Great audio is always a plus, but even more so when viewing on a phone. Remember that the speakers are small, so youre not going to hear many of the low frequencies, but thats okay as long as everything is intelligible. Also remember that theres always a lot of ambient noise around a phone if the user isnt wearing earbuds, so make sure that the audio is able to cut through it.

3. Use lots of close-ups. Close-up shots work great on small screens wide shots dont.

4. Test the video on your own phone before you upload it. What good is the video if it doesnt get the point across? The only way youll know for sure is if you test it, and your personal phone is a great place to start.

These are all good tips to keep in mind the next time you create a video. Remember that its more than likely that a great number of your viewers will now be watching on their phone, so compensate for the small screen right from the beginning.

People Watch Longer On Phones And Tablets While most people watch at least a couple of YouTube videos on their laptop or desktop during the day, it turns out that tablet users actually have the longest video engagement. Video distributor Ooyala did a study that determined that tablet users watched 28 percent longer than the desktop average. They also found that tablet viewers are more than twice as likely to finish a video than on a desktop, which was about 30 percent higher than that of mobile devices.

The study also found that desktops and laptops are more likely to be used for short video clips, whereas videos that are 10 minutes or longer make up 30 percent of the hours watched on mobile devices, 42 percent on tablets, and nearly 75 percent on connected TV devices and game consoles.

The bottom line is, if you make a video, be sure that it plays well on a phone and tablet.

Here is the original post:

4 Essential Tips To Optimize Videos For Mobile Screens - hypebot.com

The mind is a general term for the way a person that thinks, reasons, perceives, wills, and feels. For science, what others call the mind is entirely caused by workings of the brain. The philosopher Gilbert Ryle called mind the "Ghost in the Machine". He said the idea that it was separate from the brain was the mistaken "Official Doctrine".[1][2] However, some think that mind is separate from the body and is called a soul (see dualism).

Many people argue about what makes up the mind. Some say that only reason and memory are part of the mind, because they are conscious. In this view the emotions like love, hate, fear and joy are different from the mind. Some people with this view say the emotions are part of the heart. Others argue that our rational and emotional states cannot be separated and should all be part of what we call the mind.

People often use mind to mean the same as thought: the way we talk to ourselves "inside our heads". This is where the sayings "make up our minds," "change our minds" and "of two minds" come from. One of the important things of the mind in this sense is that it is private. No one else can "know our mind."

The original meaning of the Old English gemynd was memory. This explains the sayings call to mind, come to mind, keep in mind, to have mind of, and so on. Old English had other words to express what we call "mind" today, such as hyge, meaning "mind, spirit". The word mind gradually grew to mean all conscious thought over the 14th and 15th centuries.[3]

Thought is when we absorb what happens around us so that we can deal with it effectively according to our plans and desires. Thinking is using information, like forming concepts, problem solving, reasoning and making choices.

Memory is when we store information in our minds, and can later recall it.

Imagination is the ability to invent worlds inside the mind, complete or not. The mind makes these by drawing on experience in the shared world.

Consciousness is knowing that we exist and the world exists, and being able to understand what happens around us.

Just like the body, a mind can be healthy. The measure of this is called mental health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is not one way to measure mental health in all people, because there are many things in our surroundings that might make what is mentally healthier different from one person to another. In general, most experts agree that "mental health" and "mental illness" are not opposites. In other words, not having a mental illness does not mean you are in good mental health.

One way to think about mental health is by looking at how well a person lives. Signs of mental health include: feeling capable and happy, being able to handle normal levels of stress, making and keeping friends, and leading an independent life, and being able to recover from difficult situations.

Philosophy of mind is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind and how it is linked to the body. The main problem is how the mind is related to the body, but there are also questions about the nature of the mind that do not talk about its relation to the physical body.[4]

Dualism and monism are the two main ways people try to solve the mind-body problem. Dualism is when people believe that the mind and body are in some way separate from each other. It can be traced back to Plato,[5]Aristotle,[6][7][8] and the Samkhya and Yoga schools of Hindu philosophy,[9] but it was most precisely formulated by Ren Descartes in the 17th century.[10]

Monism is the belief that mind and body are not physiologically and ontologically distinct kinds of entities. This view was first seen in Western philosophy by Parmenides in the 5th century BC and was later held by the 17th-century rationalist Baruch Spinoza.[11] According to Spinoza, mind and body are two parts of a larger being.

Idealists think that the mind is all that exists and that the outside world is actually made up by the mind. Physicalists think that everything can be expressed by what is physical. Neutral monists believe that everything can be either mental or physical depending how you see it. For example, a red spot on a wall is physical, because it is an actual thing depending on the physical wall, but it is mental because our brain responds to the colour. The most common monisms in the 20th and 21st centuries have all been different kinds of physicalism, including behaviorism.[1][2][4]

Psychology is the study of the way we think, feel and act. It involves the scientific study of processes such as perception, cognition, feelings, personality, as well as things around us that might affect the way we think. From this study, psychologists try to form rules for why we act the way we do. Psychology also includes using this knowledge to help solve problems of everyday life and treat mental health problems.

Social psychology is the study of how we think, feel and act in groups of other people. Most people who study social psychology are either psychologists or sociologists.

The phrase Mind's eye refers to the ability to see things with the mind.

Read the rest here:

Mind - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There will be no special badges for DEFCON. Everyone will still have badges and our expectations are tempered because of the one year on / one year off schedule forelectronicbadges there just wont be mind-bending puzzles wrapped up in the official badges. What this means: it probably wont matter if youre late forlinecon, and someone in the DEFCON hive mind still has a Facebook. Also, DEFCON is canceled.

In the past, we have decried the very existence of fidget spinners. Its what the kids are into, after all. However, anelectronic fidget spinner is an interesting engineering challenge. It combines the mechanical fun of bearing science, the exacting precision of balancing stuff, and stuffing electronics where no electronics should be. This Kickstarter is perhaps the best electronic fidget spinner weve seen. The electronics are powered by a coin cell and are packed into one of the spaces for the wing bearings, and two additional weighted bearings allow the spinner to balance. Theres a small magnet for a hall effect sensor in the stator cap so RPM can be measured. This design uses the most common mold for a fidget spinner, making it very manufacturable. Compare this design to the Internet of Fidget Spinners, a POV fidget Spinner, another POV fidget spinner, an educational electronic fidget spinner, or this amazing technique to measure the speed of a fidget spinner that will blow your mind, and youll see this Kickstarter project is clearly the superior design.

You kids are spoiled with your programmable drum machines like your 808 and 909.Back in the day, drum machines were attached to organs, and only had a few patterns. You couldnt change the patterns, you could only change thespeed. [Jan] has created one of these prehistoric drummachines in a microcontroller. You get hardrock, disco, reggae, rock, samba, rumba, cha-cha, bossanova, beguine, synthpop, boogie, waltz, jazz rock, and slow rock. Awesome.

Theres a new electronics magazine. Its called DIYODE, and were all kicking ourselves for not coming up with that name.

Do you need a new password? Humans really arent good at coming up with random numbers, and if you need a completely random alphanumeric password, its best left to a computer. Have no fear, because theres now a website that generates the single most secure password on the planet. This password, H4!b5at+kWls-8yh4Guq, features upper and lowercase characters, numbers, symbols, and twenty unique characters. This password was developed by security researchers and encryption specialistsinEurope, so you know it has absolutely nothing to do with the NSA, CIA, or any other American three-letter agency.

Speaking of three-letter agencies, last Wednesday was International Selfie Day! That doesnt mean you still cant get in on the action. Take a selfieright now and upload it to social media! Whats facial recognition?

Looking for a great little ESP32 breakout board with all the bells and whistles? Olimex has a new board outwith Ethernet, a MicroSD card slot, and 20 GPIOs broken out.

Go here to see the original:

Hackaday Links: June 25th, 2017 - Hackaday

It's no secret that I'm a fan of the many wonderful and teen ways you can fully utilize Snapchat.From snap sexting, to the ugly AF selfies I send my bestie on my morning commute, it's my sincere belief that Insta stories will never fully kill Snapchat.

Besides, who in their right mind would upload a nude to Instagram? Not me, because I have some tact, obviously.

Snapchat has this new featurecalled Snap Map, where you can literally see where all of your friends are and what they're doing. And when I say you can see where they are, I'm talking yes, exact location cross streets and all. In true snap ghost fashion, if you want to hide from people knowing your whereabouts, you can select ghost mode to opt out of the location tagging.

For reference, here's a screenshot of fellow Elite Daily editor Katie Corvino and I hanging out on the same street. She's the lively and beautiful cupcake Bitmoji, and I'm the dark and grim blue shadow (it's comforting).

If you click on the illuminated colors around the map, you can actually click into people's stories as they'redoing cool things around you.

Immediately, I can think of about 17,346,346 reasons why this is probably a bad idea. But the dark side of me also realizes how much I wish I had this when I was dating someone who lived outside of the city. Like, I could have done some serious stalking and ended up in a snap story sinkhole of watching his friends' stories that probably would have ended up in me being mad at him.

Teens these days really do have it all.

But also, like, what about the times when I tell all my friends I'm definitely not going out and they stalk me on Snap Map only to realize that I'm actually out with another group of friends I didn't want to tell them about?

Also! What about Kylie Jenner?! She already worries about stalkers enough as it is, and I'm sure she's too busyto realize she needs to turn the map feature off in good ol' Calabasas.

OK, so now that I've psyched myself out enough that I'm definitely never using Snap Map, how the f*ck do I turn it off?

Well, my friends, let me introduce you to a little thing known as ghost mode.

Once you're in camera mode in Snapchat, use two fingers to squeeze the camera screen toward the center. Here is where your Snap Map is located.

There's me again: ghostly blue figure with three vibrant gal pals surrounding me.

If you look at the top right corner of the map, you'll see the settings button. Click that to reveal your settings options.

As you can see, I have my settings checked so that all of my friends can see my location. Selecting ghost mode ensures that no one not even your friends will be able to keep tabs on your whereabouts or be able to see what you're up to.

The only Snapchats they will be able to view are the ones you post publicly to your story.

Make sure ghost mode is illuminated in green, and you're good to go!

Whew. Now you can breathe a breath of relief because you are now free to live your life totally and completely the way nature intended: in solitary, probably with AC blasting, watching an entire season ofOrange Is The New Black in one sitting.

Definitely make sure you go invisible if you don't want friends checking up on you. But maybe limit the amount of people you tell about this, since, well, you still obviously want to keep tabs on them.

Subscribe to Elite Daily's official newsletter, The Edge, for more stories you don't want to miss.

Brittany is a San Antonio, Texas native, and holds a degree in magazine journalism and English from Syracuse University. She has been published in Time Out New York in addition to Elite Daily, where she currently works as a senior editor.

Go here to read the rest:

What Is Ghost Mode? How To Turn Off Snap Map So You Can Live In Peace - Elite Daily

By Kirk McElhearn, Senior Contributor, Macworld | Jun 23, 2017 4:00 AM PT

It's the little bugs that bug the most.

I love iCloud Photo Library. Its brain-dead simple to use (unlike iCloud Music Library), and it ensures that all my photos are in sync on all my devices. Lately, having bought a new camera, Ive been taking a lot of pictures, and Ive been wanting to view them and edit them on my iPad, with Enlight or Affinity Photo, a powerful photo editing app that was highlighted in Apples recent WWDC keynote. But syncing from my iMac, where I import photos, to my other devices can take a long time.

There are a few reasons for this. One is that my upload speed is slow. Since I shoot both RAW and JPEG, Photos has both files in its library for each picture, and together they take up about 25MB. So if I import a bunch of photos, theres a lot of data to upload.

And Photos doesnt let you control its upload, at least not easily. Even after I import photos and delete the ones I dont want to keep, Photos wants to upload them, because theyre in the Recently Deleted album. This album is a good thing, because it means that if you delete a photo, then later decide that you really did want to keep it, you have a month to change your mind. But if I import, say, 100 photos, and keep a half dozen, Photos still wants to upload all these pictures to the cloud, then down to each of my devices. Id rather that Photos not upload the Recently Deleted photos, at least not right away, perhaps deferring them until some time when Im not doing anything on my Mac. Unfortunately, when I import photos from a memory card, Photos immediately starts uploading them, whether I keep or delete them.

Ive found a workaround, but one thats clunky. In Photos preferences, on the iCloud tab, you can pause or resume photo upload. This is especially useful when you first turn on iCloud Photo Library, since there can be a lot of data to upload.

You can pause or resume photo uploads from the preferences.

To keep my bandwidth free, and to not waste time uploading lots of photos I wont keep, I go to the preferences and pause the upload. But if I do it after Ive imported the photos, then delete some or most of the photos, Photos still tries to upload all the pictures, because theyre in the Recently Deleted album.

The only way I can get photos to upload smoothly is to pause the upload in the preferences first, import the photos, delete the ones I dont want, empty the Recently Deleted album, and then turn uploading back on.

Even when Ive done that, its a crap-shoot as to how long it will take for the photos to show up on my other devices. Sometimes its fairly quickly, sometimes it can take more than an hour after Photos on my iMac has finished uploading. And this is just syncing thumbnails; I still need to download files if I want to do anything more than view them in the Photos app.

Now if I really want to work on a photo, there are other options. I can use AirDrop, for example, to send it from my iMac to my iPad. But then Ill have a duplicate. I may have, say, cropped a photo on my iMac, or started tweaking the RAW file in Photos, and if I export it to the Finder, Ill have the original, unmodified file, not one with my changes.

While features like Handoff and Continuity work more or less reliably these days, its a lot harder to have that continuity with Photos. Its not just my limited upstream bandwidth that slows things down, its whatever happens in iCloud that makes syncing lag.

With photos being such an important feature for iOS and Mac users, it would be helpful if this photo syncing was a bit faster. I can sync files to my Dropbox folder and see them immediately on other devices. Why cant Apple do the same?

Read more here:

iCloud Photo Library's sync need fixing - Macworld

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Weve only just had one patch go live, but Blizzard have released a brand new one into the PTR. This one doesnt have any big character changes, though - its just a couple of rather big quality of life improvements.

Our list of the best multiplayer games is the article for you.

I dont know about you, but I quite fancy having fewer duplicates in my Loot Boxes. I also dont mind the idea of being able to save and easily share my highlight videos on social media. In 4K too!

Heres whats on offer in patch 1.13.

Loot Boxes will now give out drastically fewer duplicates, so you should be able to unlock stuff for your favourite characters more easily. If youre worried about taking a hit in Credits, Blizzard are also upping the Credits earned from Loot Boxes, so you should earn around the same, if not more, under the new system. Of course, the PTR exists to tweak how it works.

With that in mind, all players who log in to the PTR this patch cycle will receive five PTR Loot Boxes. These are standard loot boxes that will only be available on the PTR. Any items earned from Loot Boxes or unlocked via Credits on the PTR will not transfer over to your live account.

The highlights system has received several major updates:

Follow this link:

Overwatch patch 1.13 brings Loot Box tweaks and highlight video uploading to the PTR - PCGamesN

College professors have every right to be provocative, even outrageous, in their efforts to challenge established biases and inspire creative thought. But to incite rage with cruelty, to the point where safety is compromised that's different.

Faced with a situation that went beyond the boundaries of merely provocative, Trinity College President Joanne Berger-Sweeney responded with aplomb this week, decrying the irresponsible use of academic license and calling for a review of the incident to determine if college policies were violated.

The issue arose when Trinity Associate Professor Johnny Eric Williams posted on Facebook a link to an essay that many found objectionable at best.

Titled "Let Them [Expletive] Die," the essay encouraged people to "do nothing" if they saw "the bigots" in life-threatening situations and ended with the exhortation to "Let. Them. [Expletive]. Die. And smile a bit when you do."

Mr. Williams repeated the essay's title in subsequent Facebook posts, including one calling for an "end to the vectors of their destructive mythology of whiteness and their white supremacy system."

Many saw it as an endorsement of the thinking behind the essay, a stance Mr. Williams denied.

"This was an admittedly provocative move to get readers to pay attention to my reasoned, reasonable, and yes angry argument," he wrote, meant "to draw the attention of the readers to the current dire state of white supremacy in the nation."

If he meant to be provocative, he succeeded. But he also created an unsafe atmosphere at the college, which was shut down for a day in response to threats. Free speech has consequences. Mr. Williams is a member of a broader community at Trinity and should have kept that in mind.

Trinity College / HANDOUT

Johnny Eric Williams, associate professor of sociology at Trinity College. (Trinity College) User Upload Caption: Johnny Eric Williams, associate professor of sociology at Trinity College. (Trinity College) hc

Johnny Eric Williams, associate professor of sociology at Trinity College. (Trinity College) User Upload Caption: Johnny Eric Williams, associate professor of sociology at Trinity College. (Trinity College) hc (Trinity College / HANDOUT)

Ms. Berger-Sweeney told Mr. Williams that "his use of the [title of the essay] was reprehensible," she wrote to the Trinity community. "No matter its intent, it goes against our fundamental values as an institution, and I believe its effect is to close minds rather than open them."

That's the right approach. The title was uncivil, even heartless. It provokes anger and was not worthy of a teacher of young minds.

Mr. Williams' tacit endorsement of a mindset so abhorrent was remarkably poor judgment. Ms. Berger-Sweeney is right to denounce it, yet she should ensure that the college's response doesn't squelch vigorous, even uncomfortable, debate.

Here is the original post:

Trinity Right To Denounce Deplorable Posts - Hartford Courant

The awkward online and multiplayer functions of the Festival Plaza explained.

By Chris Tapsell Published 23/06/2017

The Festival Plaza in Pokmon Sun and Moon can, at times, seem like a bit of an impenetrable mess, particularly when it comes to the relatively simple features of trading and battling online.

Things are made a little more complicated than they need be at times, and so with that in mind we've put together this quick and dirty guide for getting you up and running with the Festival Plaza's online and communications features as easily as possible. Expect simple walkthroughs here for Link Trading online with friends, trading using the GTS, Wonder Trade, plus tips for setting up Link Battles and visiting the Battle Spot.

There are three ways to trade in Pokmon Sun and Moon: Link Trades, the GTS, and Wonder Trade. All three are accessed through the bottom screen after entering the Festival Plaza. Here's the difference between each:

With those explained, let's go through step-by-step how to take part in a trade online.

How to Link Trade:

How to Trade on the GTS:

How to Wonder Trade:

Need more tips? Use our Pokmon Sun and Moon Walkthrough and guide for the main story, our competitive training guide for info on IVs, EV training, Hyper Training and bottle cap farming, and breeding explained, our choice of the best Pokmon Sun and Moon starter from Rowlet, Litten and Popplio, as well as an in-progress list of where to find Zygarde Cells and Cores and our guide to the Battle Tree and both Battling and Trading in the Festival Plaza. We also have a list of QR codes list, Z Crystal locations, Mega Stone locations, Eevium Z Eevee User locations for Extreme Evoboost, evolutions for Alolan Forms and other new Sun and Moon Pokmon and fast way to increase a Pokmon's Happiness, plus how to transfer across Ash-Greninja from the Sun and Moon Demo, where to catch the Tapu Guardians, how to catch the Ultra Beasts, and how to download the Munchlax Mystery Gift.

Both the Link Battles and Battle Spot work in a largely similar way to the trades above. You'll need to connect to the internet, select Battle from the bottom screen, and then choose the type of battle you'd like to hold, with Link Battles the go-to option for battling a specific person on your Friends, VIP, or Guest Lists.

That's it for our quick rundown of the Festival Plaza's online communication features, but be sure to check out our detailed guide to the Battle Tree, plus Mega Stone locations, and where to find all of the Z Crystals for further competitive, postgame content - plus, if you're still working your way through the main story, our main Pokmon Sun and Moon Walkthrough and Guide has absolutley everything you need to know.

See the original post:

Pokmon Sun and Moon - Festival Plaza, how to trade, use GTS, and battle online explained - Eurogamer.net

Today at an event in San Francisco HTC hosted a Vive X Demo Day for its second batch of funded company demos. The event featured 26 different companies ranging from game developers, enterprise applications, ease-of-use convenience tools, and a litany of other projects.

To date Vive X has funded over 60 different companies with over $100 million and aims to continue its expansion into Israel soon in addition to locations in the U.S., China, and more.

Make sure to check back tomorrow and later this week for more details, impressions, and thoughts on the companies that demoed. Below weve included summaries of each company featured at the Vive X Demo Day:

cognitiveVR Provides 3D spatial analytics and user feedback tools for VR/AR, enabling organizations to quickly and easily display analytics on their users sessions and collect deep metrics on user behavior and feedback.

Construct Studio A bilingual independent studio dedicated to creating interactive narrative experiences for VR. Construct has recently created their first interactive VR narrative The Price of Freedom, based on the real events of CIA mind control program Project MK Ultra.

HyperfairVR A SaaS web-based social VR solution for enterprises. It allows businesses to self-build and easily customize their own branded VR environment, and quickly publish to multiple platforms to engage with customers and employees in VR via avatars.

Limitless A cloud-based platform which aims to make it easier to create VR content. Using the Limitless VR Creative Environment, creators can animate characters directly in VR using motion controls, simplifying the animation process for newcomers and professionals alike.

Mindesk Creators ofthe first immersive interface for commercial CAD software in the world. With Mindesk, engineers, architects and designers can build their models naturally in VR, while collaborating in real time in the cloud.

Realiteer Develops and distributes immersive and evidence-based programs in cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), which has been clinically shown to treat substance abuse, anxiety, and depression. It is working closely with world-class academic researchers to design and build these programs.

The Rogue Initiative A new VR and Digital Media content studio, creating AAA cinematic interactive entertainment. The Rogue Initiative collaborates with established Hollywood talent to co-create and co-own new intellectual property in VR that can be further developed into various franchises.

Subdream A social VR gaming studio founded by serial gaming entrepreneur Jikhan Jung. Subdream plans on releasing quality multiplayer games that can be played at VR arcades and at home.

Vertebrae A native advertising platform for VR and AR. The headset-agnostic tech stack connects advertisers with developers and publishers to deliver immersive, native VR/AR/360 video advertising experiences.

Hexa A company thats changing the way we experience our planet by making it easy to create and scale 3D content. Hexa automatically converts 2D photos into 3D assets and enable online retailers to create virtual equivalents of their collections and display them online.

OVAs StellarX The best tool out there for non-programmers to develop their own VR environments in VR through simple grab-and-drop creation.

Invrse Reality This company aims to fuse physical and virtual reality. Our unique interface design and touch input will bring meaningful user experiences to your fingertips.

PlusOne An AR + AI startup creating interactive intelligent human holograms which can be used by enterprises to train their employees to interact more effectively with customers.

Multiverse A world-class VR studio founded by game industry veterans from places like Wevr, Disney, Riot, Ubisoft, Com2us, and CJ E&M. Multiverse is poised to create industry-defining content and help bring VR to the masses. Multiverses previous game, Reveries: Dream Flight, is one of the highest-rated VR games worldwide, and a top selling title on the Oculus Store.

Red Accent A game creator with a strong track record developing games for console, PC and mobile. Red Accent is currently working on sports and adventure titles and is based out of Shanghai and San Francisco.

Byond A cloud-based VR publishing platform empowering brands, media companies and agencies to create their own personalized interactive universe in VR. Using Byonds tools, VR applications can be easily created and published across all platforms.

Aurora AR A company with thegoal to be the leader in augmented reality glass optics and device design. Our first product is an 135 degree field of view augmented reality glass which works under daylight, and is cost-effective for consumers.

BrokenColors This company builds and integrates head-based sensing technologies that bring the users gaze, facial expressions, and mindsets into the virtual world. Our sensing technologies are creating a more immersive experience for VR users.

bHaptics This company enables users to enjoy VR with visual, auditory, and haptic feedback. Our distinguished haptic devices and haptic authoring software are the ideal solution for conveniently adding appropriate haptic feedback to various VR content.

SoccerDream A VR football (soccer) training technology that helps clubs and academies make their players smarter, and keep them highly motivated, just as the worlds top clubs do.

Opaque Space A premier developer of consumer and simulation VR experiences. Opaque Space is developing the acclaimed VR game Earthlight and collaborating with NASA to develop VR training tools for the next generation of astronauts.

Snobal This company builds VR Tools for businesses. Snobals tools empower organizations to easily create, manage and analyze their virtual reality environments, whether for design, collaboration or stakeholder engagement.

Memora A global leading 360 degree camera manufacturer which provides a new way to communicate and archive moments in 360VR and AI.

Xikaku Develops AR technology for applications in industrial and medical fields. Our first product, the X-Visor, is an analysis and visualization system allowing factory personnel do precise and efficient machine inspection using an overlay of real-time sensor data. Our systems provide a platform to dramatically enhance the capabilities and skills of human resources in mission critical applications.

Appnori Inc. A sports-focused VR game development company, developing games such as baseball and table tennis, which can be enjoyed by all users regardless of age.

VRANI Company intends to provide VRs fantastic experiences to users by focusing on interactive VR characters. Through four core playing experiences, Easy-Play, Extreme-Play, Interactive-Play and Multi-Play, we create fun and easy casual VR content.

Tagged with: Demo Day, htc, ViveX

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ViveX Demo Day Batch 2 Featured 26 VR And AR Companies - UploadVR

We all know that no matter whatbusiness services you are looking for, you must keep the exact requirements of your business in mind even when picking an Internet connection for your business.

Here are a few things you must consider:

Its important to note that most internet connections download files/data much faster than uploading them. Thats because most of the day to day activities on the Internet (which include video streaming, loading of web pages etc.) involve downloading of data. The low upload speed can cause serious issues for businesses that use Internet connection primarily for uploading data. These include tasks like loading data to the weekly or daily business reports, backing up information to the cloud and so on.

A standard connection that promises to offer a maximum speed of 50 Mbps is unlikely to allow you upload at that speed; 50 Mbps would be the maximum download speed you will be enjoying when using that connection. Upload speed offered by the same connection would never be able to match that speed.

If your business connectivity is required primarily for uploading data, you would require symmetrical bandwidth, which is provided by use of Ethernet solutions. Symmetrical bandwidth would allow you to enjoy same upload and download speeds.

Internet connection types commonly used by businesses

ADSL Broadband - This is possibly the most cost effective option you would come across when looking for a suitable Internet connection for your business. This connection type is available in almost every area and offers bonded solutions that would allow you to enjoy high speeds. Another feature thats worth a mention is ADSLs impressive latency. However, the option wouldnt suit you if you are looking for a connection offering fast upload speed.

Fiber broadband - This is a great option if you have a small office and a handful of employees. It would offer you a download speed of as high as 80 Mbps. However, fiber broadband is an expensive option if you have low bandwidth requirements.

Leased lines - This one is surely rated among the best possible network connectivity your business can have. With a leased line, you will enjoy dedicated and high-speed Internet connection that would be completely private. It would offer you 99.9 percent up-time and symmetrical bandwidth. The only thing you will have to remember before picking this option is that it would cost you significantly more money that ADSL. Also, you must also be careful about cable theft.

Wireless (3G & 4G where possible) - As a result of being wireless, this connectivity option would allow you to use the Internet on the go. A business WiFI has several benefits and it might be the most popular internet connection business opt in. WiFi allows you to connect your device, or devices, and let you roam free through the office. Considering that BYOD trend is increasing over the globe, it would explain the increased demand for wireless business solutions.

The other benefits of this option include high availability in metropolitan locations and easy deployment. Also, you can get hold of some truly low-cost packages when using this connectivity type. However, you should check the efficacy of the connection well before picking it for business connectivity as its latency or performance is often variable.

Why opting for managed network services would be a good decision?

Heres how managed network services can help your business

By controlling operating expenses of the entire IT network- A managed service would reduce operational, hardware, service, maintenance, infrastructure, and software costs. Also, all these costs would be controlled better and become more predictable.

By maintaining network and preventing network issues proactively- The managed network service provider would free you up for focusing on the primary goals of your business. These service providers ensure that their clients can use high-performance networks boasting high flexibility and speed. They even possess the infrastructure required for supporting faster upgrades and implementations. A Managed network service provider would carry out preventive and proactive maintenance checks on a regular basis and keep making improvements to the network.

By offering more comprehensive network security- With managed network services, your business will be enjoying a higher level of security for your entire data and voice network. Your business would be protected from spam, intrusions, viruses, malware, as well as inappropriate content.

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The Most Suitable Connection for Your Business - BusinessZone (blog)

Making puzzles in VR better is, in itself, a conundrum. While coming under enemy fire might be all the more intense and caring for characters is easier, solving a rubiks cube inside a headset isnt exactly a more definitive gaming experience. Putting piece A into slot B isnt quite the revelation in VR that you might hope; you need to make something that truly stands apart from the years of puzzlers that have lined the path to this new medium. The genre needs its own Portal.

Form doesnt just run with that idea; it bends it, remoulds it, makes it bigger, lighter, more dramatic.

Set in an Alaskan research facility, this excellent debut from Charm Games casts you as Dr. Devin Eli, a physicist studying a strange supernatural artifact named The Obelisk. Though the game starts out in a cold laboratory, your environment soon morphs into the impossibly surreal and ever-changing landscape of your own mind, a place where your thoughts appear as comic book-like bubbles that you grab and throw away and puzzles present themselves in the most majestic and curious of ways.

Youll need to get used to the games sheer unpredictability. Forms puzzles usually boil down to simple and relatively easy tasks, but they come at you in fascinating ways. Small shapes hover in front of you before bleeding out into hulking tapestriesat the very touch of a finger, unexpectedly glorious sounds emit from the slightest movements, and dazzling light displays reward your successes. It is, quite literally, a transformative experience in which the smallest of actions has the most dramatic of effects upon your world.

Theres a real joy to just existing in Forms universein this way. Charm has done an excellent job realising something thats enriched by putting a headset on, concocting an uncanny atmosphere that really feels like youre exploring a strange new alien world.

It has architecture that you simply wont understand but nevertheless feels evolved and precious, as if youre there to preserve it just as much as you are to use it. Its soundtrack is fuzzy and revelatory, pushing a sense of pioneering discovery right the way through. You feel like the starry-eyed movie characters that have just uncovered lost civilizations or made contact with beings from another planet.

That tone carries through to the puzzles. Pretty much every challenge in Form starts with you picking up a strange alien artefact and wondering exactly what the heck it is. Indentations in panels reveal them to be tools with specific uses, and buttons and levers promise unexpected consequences with every interaction.

As I said, youll usually boil them down to simple challenges, many of which youve seen before. Memory-based sequences and object rearrangement isnt exactly groundbreaking, but its the sense of picking something ancient and prestigious up and interacting with it that carries the experience. Better yet, they all fit neatly inside the limitations of VR; the game is a standing experience that avoids even the slightest chance of breaking your immersion. Theres no walking around or ducking down, keeping you rooted to the spot means you never risk that trance-breaking wire tug or have to fiddle with your headset as it shifts around your face.

That said there are some highlights. Theres a great puzzle in which a web of holographic shapes must be correctly aligned in front of you, and certain lights reveal hidden objects essential for progression. Theres nothing here that will leave you stumped, certainly not for more than a few minutes, but the delivery makes it all a joy to solve.

What a shame, then, that its over all too quickly. I beat Form in less than an hour, and its credits rolled long before Id seen them coming. The short and sweet experience means nothing outstays its welcome, but it also feels like theres plenty more to explore here. Short VR experiences are quickly becoming the norm and thats fine, but the games pacing never suggested to me that I was nearing the end of my journey.

Form is a little too short and lacking in challenge for it to be considered a true classic, but it stands tall as a VR puzzler unlike any other. Theres an understanding of this new medium here that few developers have been able to demonstrate over the past year. Its atmosphere is dense and engaging and its puzzles capture a strong sense of discovery, resulting in a brilliant blend of gameplay and experience. The flood of VR puzzle games could learn a lot from the foundations that Charm Games has laid here.

Form is available now for $19.99. Check out these official review guidelines to find out more about our process.

Originally posted here:

Form Review: VR Puzzling At Its Transformative Best - UploadVR

There are a lot of places on this planet that I dream of visiting. I want to stand on the tiny islands that sit between Russia and Alaska, explore the parks of Canada, and experience the culture of South Korea. Im lucky enough to have travelled the globe already, but I still have so many cities and landscapes I want to see.

Mohammed Kteish just wants to see his home again.

Kteish is a Syrian refugee, hailing from the city of Aleppo. This was once a great city, a sprawling hub for over 2 million people going about their day with places for children to play and spots for communities to enjoy. The on-going crisis in the county, however, has reduced parts of it to little more than a ghost town, its streets filled with rubble and robbed of the laughter and joy that once occupied them. Kteish, 15, was one of the many that fled his war torn surroundings. Now he wants to go back.

But its not safe, and all Kteish is left with is his memories. Aleppo still exists in his mind, and hes brought it back to life in the real world too with a papercraft model of its various landmarks and hot spots. Ancient brick has been replaced with scrawled coloring, lush trees are reborn with scrunched up paper, and toy cars line the streets. It captures a vibrancy and bustle that many of us wouldnt associate with the region, preserving a way of life that existed long before gunfire and bombs took over.

And its been further immortalised within VR.

Kteishs creation itself has been virtually recreated inside the Oculus Rift with the help of Alex Pearson and London-based production studio, Marshmallow Laser Feast. The result is Future Aleppo, a piece commissioned by Sheffield Doc/Fest and on display for the first time at this years festival. Kteishs model sits in front of you in real life, and then you pull a Rift over your head to find it sitting there in the virtual world, with Kteish ready to give you an audio tour of the area.

As an experience, Future Aleppo reminded me of Clouds Over Sidra, the groundbreaking 360 degree video that gave us a tour of a Syrian refugee camp. Here, however, Kteish recalls memories of his childhood, growing up in an apartment block, playing in nearby parks, visiting huge monuments and sites like the stadium. Theres an obvious child-like quality to it; youre seeing Kteishs memories, directly through his eyes. Its a perspective on Syria that simply isnt possible without VR.

At one point he tells us that its his dream to revisit these sights one day. Its a tragedy I couldnt hope to fully process; imagine wanting more than anything for your home to just be your home again. Imagine having that taken from you.

As I removed the Rift, I took the time to study the model in greater detail. I had a better sense of this place already, my mind was better able to form an image of people walking its streets. I revisited the spots Kteish had talked about and took the time to picture the scenes he described. I got to see a side of Aleppo I just hadnt thought about before. If that was the aim of the project then it certainly succeeded.

Future Aleppo only lasts a few minutes but its sights will long stay in my mind. On the one hand its a tragic look at what scores of innocent people have been robbed of, and the injustice of the humanitarian crisis that they now face. On the other, its the best kind of rose-tinted window into the joy and love of a community that will hopefully one day thrive once more. Its also a great example of combining the real and virtual worlds. In a climate that increasingly struggles to understand and sympathize, this is an experience that I would be eager to get on as many heads as possible.

Tagged with: Future Aleppo

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VR for Good: Future Aleppo Is An Emotional Tour Of Loss And Hope - UploadVR

There has been a lot of talk recently about the Singularity: the idea that were rapidly approaching a threshold event in history when artificial intelligence will transcend human intelligence, and the resulting transformation will lead to a new form of existence utterly different from anything that has come before. Discussions of the Singularity, however, sometimes miss the fact that there are very different ways it could happen, with different levels of likelihood.

One version that has received significant press lately is the emergence of a superhuman artificial intelligence (AI). Last year DeepMind, a Google-backed AI system, used deep learning techniques to teach itself Go, a game far more complex than chess, and then trounced world champion Lee Sedol. Prominent scientists, Stephen Hawking included, warn that the rise of self-organized machine intelligence could be the greatest existential threat facing humanity.

At the other end of the optimism spectrum, futurist Raymond Kurzweil dreams of immortality by downloading his mind and re-uploading it to new hardware after his deatha prospect he believes is closer than most people imagine, setting its date at 2045 in his bestseller The Singularity Is Near. Kurzweils ideas are gaining tractionhe is a director of engineering at Google, and his Singularity University boasts a faculty of some of Silicon Valleys leading entrepreneurs. But his vision may contain a fatal flaw: the human brain cannot be split, like a computer, between hardware and software. Rather, neuroscientists point out that a neurons biophysical makeup is intrinsically linked to its computations; the information doesnt exist separately from its material construction.

Will humans get there first?

There is, however, another kind of Singularity that doesnt rely on a leap of faith. Instead, its a predictable outcome of technological enhancements already being designed and implemented. It relies on the very fact that makes Kurzweils version unlikely: that human consciousness is embedded in a physical network of neurons. In this form of Singularity, human nervous systems across the world could connect with each other through the internet, permitting a new type of human superorganism to emerge.

Last month, Facebook and Elon Musk separately announced investments in technologies that could lead humanity to this outcome. Facebook announced plans for a silent speech interface using neural signal receptors that could allow users to type words into their smartphone using only their thoughts.

Billionaire Elon Musk raised the ante even further, announcing a new company, Neuralink Corporation, that aims to merge human brains with computers with the ultimate goal of enabling what Musk calls consensual telepathy. In this scenario, you would be able to share your thoughts and feelings with another person through a neural-computer interface. As in his other ventures, Musk is acting according to what he perceives as a grand vision for humanity. In his view, there is a race to the Singularity between humans and AI, and he wants humans to get there first, thus becoming active participants in the post-Singularity world rather than useless bystanders as AI takes over.

Speculative as these ideas may appear, the first steps down this path have already been taken. Hundreds of thousands of profoundly deaf people now hear through neural implants that use electrodes to transmit sound waves directly to the cochlear nerve. Patients suffering from Parkinsons disease can control their tremors through deep brain stimulation, which sends electrical pulses that modulate the brains neural activity. Brain-controlled prosthetics are being developed to allow paralyzed patients to move artificial fingers, legs, and even cursors on a computer screen.

Currently this requires complicated surgery. However, Miguel Nicolelis, a pioneer in brain-machine interfaces, believes that by around 2030 noninvasive methods could enable people to communicate regularly with their computers using thought. Scientists have already programmed brain scanners to literally see an image someone has in their mind.

Human Superorganism?

The implications of an advanced neural-computer interface are so enormous that they challenge the imagination. People could use the interface to share ideas with each other merely by thinking them and transmitting those thoughts through a network. But the potential extends far beyond mere conceptual sharing. As technology improved, youd be able to share your emotions, feeling tones, and physical sensations with others. Emotional responses to public events could be uploaded and spread over the internet. Intimate relationships would be utterly transformed.

Its easy to see how the boundary lines between an individual, the computer interface, and the rest of humanity might become blurred. Once a critical mass of people is connected, would they eventuallybegin to identify more as a group of interconnected thoughts and sensations than as individuals? Unlike Kurzweils Singularity, this version would not provide immortality to any of us. It might, however, cause the emergence of a new, collective entity, a self-organized human intelligence that incorporates and reflects each of the billions of individuals comprising it, in much the same way that an ant colonysometimes referred to as a superorganismdemonstrates a collective intelligence far beyond the limitations of each individual ant.

Many people might recoil from this vision, fearing the loss of individuality it might entail. However, this wouldnt necessarily be the case. The urge to connect with each other is one of humanitys defining characteristics. Our most crucial inventionlanguageis essentially a vehicle to transcend each persons cognitive isolation. Another uniquely human capabilitymusicpermits us to share emotional experiences in a meaningful and exquisite way. From this perspective, its reasonable to see the emergence of a human superorganism as another evolutionary stage that could profoundly enrich, rather than detract from, the intrinsic experience of being human.

Or a swarm of programmed drones?

However, this vision could be hijacked by the same forces that are already steering the internet into disturbing territory. Data privacy concerns, already paramount, have been exacerbated by the recent decision of the U.S. Congress to permit internet service providers to sell detailed usage data without customers permission. How much greater would this concern be if our very thoughts and feelings could be used as marketing fodder?

Even with the limitations of current technology, social media innovators have found ways to manipulate our hormonal responses. Pioneers in the field of captologyfrom the acronym CAPT, or Computers As Persuasive Technologyhave learned to use what they call hot triggers, such as the thumbs-up icon or Like statistics, to spark micro-doses of endorphinsin our brains, causing subconscious addictive behavioral loops. It is hard to imagine the power these manipulations would hold over us if they had direct access to our brains.

Then there are concerns about what kind of forces an internet of emotions might unleash. Many observers have voiced apprehension about our post-factual world roiled by fake news stories that spread like wildfire across the internet. If raw emotions could be transmitted across humanity like a tidal wave without requiring even false facts to back them up, what would this do to the political makeup of a future neurally connected society?

The issues that are hotly debated today have implications not just for how the internet will develop in the near future, but quite possibly for how humanity will evolve. Might we one day share the unimaginable experience of being part of a human superorganism while retaining individual autonomy? Or will we simply become programmed drones thinking were making our own choices that ultimately are driven by the objectives of corporate shareholders and unscrupulous politicians?

One thing is clear: discussions about the Singularity cannot be left to a few pioneering think tanks and billionaire entrepreneurs. The implications of these new developments are enormous. The future direction of humanity may well be at stake.

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A Meeting of Minds and Computers: What Are the Costs of Using Technology to Merge Humans with Machines? - Religion Dispatches

While some have viewed the merging of technology and physiology as fantasy, reality is showing that this is no longer just science fiction. On the contrary, the beginnings of this process are wellunderway. We are however, still in the toddler stage of this evolution.

Many people found the first wave of wearables came up short. Entry-level price points are high, and accuracy is not as great as it could be. It is no wonder that surveys show there is a 30% return rate and high product abandonment after six months.

But what does the future hold?

Search the internet, and you will find a plethora of articles attempting to predict where technology will lead us in the next few decades. One name that stands apart, however, is Ray Kurzweil.

Bill Gates calls Ray Kurzweil, the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence.

So who is this man?

He has received 20 honorary doctorates, been awarded honors from three U.S. presidents, and has authored 7 books (5 of which have been bestsellers).

Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets for 2017

Ray Kurzweil is the principal inventor of many technologies ranging from the first CCD flatbed scanner to the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind. He is also the chancellor and co-founder of Singularity University, and the guy employed by Google to direct its artificial intelligence development.

While he hasnt been precisely right in every single prediction, his track record in making forecastsis stunningly good.

So what does the future hold according to Ray? It makes for exciting and scary reading.

All of this sounds incredible,but think back 10 or 20 years ago. Just like Rays predictions sound like science fiction today, the internet, the iPhone, Google would have seemed like science fiction not too long ago.

Rays predictions are a byproduct of the power of Moores Law.

Moores Law contends that as components get smaller, products gain efficiency and become more powerful. Moores law is part of a continuum of exponential expansion of computational power that extends back hundreds and hundreds of years. This means that in addition to accurately charting the progress of semiconductor technology from 1960 until now, it goes further. As before that there were other computing technologies, back to the abacus and beyond.

What this means is, that you can think of current wearables as the Osborne Executive portable computer strapped to your wrist.

The above image shows an Osborne Executive portable computer, from 1982, with a Zilog Z80 4 MHz CPU, and a 2007 Apple iPhone with a 412 MHz ARM11 CPU; the Executive weighs 100 times as much, has nearly 500 times the volume, costs approximately 10 times as much (adjusted for inflation), and has about 1/100th the clock frequency of the smartphone.

As devices become smaller, faster and more feature packed, jewelry like gadgets will increase. This will be followed by conductive fabrics or sensor-clad smart garments which we are already seeing.

Essential reading: Moving away from the wrist the best smart clothing

As hard as it is to believe, ultimately wearables will go much further, even going into ingestible technology. By the early 2020s, it is likely that we will start to rely on embedded devices technology that is physically implantedinto our bodies.

There is little doubt that human beings are increasingly merging with technology. Computers are no longer just for our desks and pockets. They are now proudly displayed on our bodies and will one day be merged with them. The innovations that will enable this are inevitable and already well underway!

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Wearables a glimpse into the future - Gadgets & Wearables

To address rising cost and risk pressures, improve innovation and focus on core competencies, many science-based organizations are moving collaborative relationships beyond traditional boundaries and creating flexible networks of researchers. Some are in-house; others are with industry and academic partners, research institutes, consortia and contract research organizations (CROs). Over time, these externalized networks are increasing in size and complexity. Many combine numerous partners with diverse objectives involving single or multiple research projects that, in some cases, can tie up more than 50% of a commissioning organizations IT budget. Internet-based collaboration solutions such as email, SharePoint, VPN, Citrix and other data exchange mechanisms often introduce security challenges, incompatible data formats and the need to prepare and curate files manually. These difficulties can reduce productivity, decrease data quality, lengthen project timelines and increase failures.

With these challenges in mind, combined with an enormous pressure to reduce their informatics footprint, organizations are turning to cloud-based solutions as a scalable, secure, state-of-the-art environment for research collaboration. With cloud adoption significantly enhancing collaborative projects, increasing operational agility and lowering total cost of ownership, cloud computing has become a valuable and viable solution today; however, organizations are often uncertain about the best way to evaluate, select and implement a cloud collaboration platform.

To learn more about cloud-based research informatics and the benefits and challenges of adopting this technology, we spoke to Ton van Daelen, senior product director for collaborative sciences at Dassault Systmes BIOVIA.

What data challenges do scientific organizations face in the modern, collaboration-driven world?

Science-based organizations across diverse industry sectors (e.g., life sciences, consumer packaged goods, energy/process/utilities and industrial equipment) are radically reinventing themselves by embracing globalization, innovating with outside partners and focusing on operational excellence. Externalized projects introduce substantial challenges that are typically not encountered in internal projects. How do you set up an IT infrastructure that supports external parties? How do you communicate effectively with partners in different geographies and time zones? How do you securely share data and reduce the amount of time required to clean up and standardize collaborator data? How do you secure the IP of different parties and share project data in real time?

Faced with these challenges, external projects often do not meet their original expectations, or worse, they fail completely. This is a huge risk factor as organizations rely more than ever on external partners to advance discovery initiatives. External collaborations require internal staff to radically change the way they access, manage and interpret research data, which can disrupt established workflows and require significant retraining. As this is not often feasible, access to collaboration data tends to be managed by a few gatekeepers, further reducing collaboration effectiveness.

Data exchange with external partners is often manual and therefore prone to error, and all collaborations bring their own sets of data representations. Highly-paid scientists can spend up to 50 percent of their time manually processing and checking collaborator data. Errors can go unnoticed for weeks or months, resulting in significant project delays and IP risk. Reliable, automated procedures for tech transfer, data standardization and data transfer to legacy databases are expensive to implement and maintain and often require highly skilled software developers.

What are the key benefits of cloud-based data management? How much of an impact can implementing this kind of system have?

Cloud-based data management provides web and mobile-accessible applications for uploading, processing, storing, searching and analyzing structured and unstructured scientific records. Most importantly, the cloud delivers improved agility and lowers total cost of ownership (TCO) for organizations tasked with responding quickly to changing business needs while also lowering costs. Being in the cloud means you can set up a robust collaboration systemaccessible anywhere, anytimewith minimal IT support quickly and easily, and you only pay for what you need and use.

In a cloud environment:

Scientists can rapidly access and share research data including experiments, chemical structures, assays and other test results which significantly accelerates informed decisions based on the most complete and current information available. No time is lost on data transformation and interpretation. Data originators ensure that their data resides in the system as intended. The ability to annotate data provides context for other scientists using the information.

Research managers continuously gain visibility into projects along with the ability to understand the latest results across all partnering organizations. As a result, they can better schedule the project tasks to maximize the process efficiency. Data access is secure and controlled and not reliant on the partner, helping to protect IP and the organizations investment in collaborations.

IT organizations benefit from low IT cost of ownership resulting from the pay-as-you-go model of a hosted system. As collaboration networks evolve, the cloud system makes it easy for sponsoring organizations to quickly spin up and spin down partner engagements with the data they provide securely partitioned in the system. A highly configurable cloud system can support the easy definition of sites, projects and user roles, as well as the definition of data access and upload permissions for each of these. A cloud system certified to the ISO-27001 industry standard helps to ensure that confidential and proprietary information remains secure in the cloud.

Cloud-based technologies are completely new to many people in science. How can scientific organizations be confident that they are selecting a solution that will meet their requirements?

The cloud is now a proven solution used by many companies of all sizes and in many industries. Solutions like Salesforce.com, Workday, SAP SuccessFactors and Concur Technologies have been handling confidential information in the cloud for millions of users over many years. The best way to deploy a cloud solution (and deal with cloud skeptics) is to create a strong cloud vision and build a compelling cloud strategy that aligns with organizational needs. Simplify governance issues by assessing impactful use cases, current workflows/processes, security risks and the highest priority functions to be moved to the cloud. Additionally, carefully consider the cultural changes and new policies that will be needed to streamline governance and align employees with the new cloud environment. Your cloud provider should be able to guide you through the process of provisioning and managing users and groups across the cloud apps your organization needs. This includes the process of creating and managing groups, controlling who has access to apps, enabling self-signup, managing password requirements and the many other business process changes that come with a move to the cloud.

A few figures:

Worldwide spending on public cloud services will grow at a 19.4 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from nearly $70B in 2015 to more than $141B in 2019.1

+171,000 paid attendees from 83 countries attended Dreamforce in 2016.2

Morgan Stanley predicts Microsoft cloud products will be 30 percent of revenue by 2018.1

By 2020, penetration of software as a service (SaaS) versus traditional software deployment will be over 25 percent. Packaged software will shrink to 10percent of new enterprise installations.1

Implementing a cloud-based data management system is a big step for any organization. How can they effectively measure the success of adopting this technology once it is all up and running?

Organizations can expect a number of benefits to materialize over time: time and cost savings through data exchange and communication automation, a lowered TCO resulting from infrastructure in the cloud, shorter project timelines and improved efficiency with cloud agilitymaking it possible for organizations to adapt to changing business environments by spinning collaborations up and down quickly in the cloud. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) our customers typically use are 1) scientist productivity, 2) IT spending per user/application, 3) time spent implementing new software applications and 4) average time to start up, run and close down a project.

References

1. Louis Columbus, Roundup of Cloud Computing Forecasts and Market Estimates, 2016

https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2016/03/13/roundup-of-cloud-computing-forecasts-and-market-estimates-2016/#192bad382187

2. https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2016/10/dreamforce-16-by-the-numbers.html

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Cloud-based Research Informatics: Improving Collaboration, Increasing Agility and Reducing Operating Costs - Technology Networks

Call me a flip-flopper, but thenew features in iOS 11 have me thinking of jumping back to iOS after switching to Android barely a year ago.

Indeed, the new version of iOS brings such enticing features as a revamped App Store, a customizable Control Center, and drag-and-drop for iPad users, plus such catch-up features as one-handed typing and easy person-to-person payments.

But returning to iOS would mean leaving behind many Android features I've grown to love, from the ability to set up multiple user profiles to one-touch Google searches on whatever's onscreen at a given moment.

Read on for six awesome Android features that iOS 11 has yet to match, starting with...

Given all the innovations coming to the iPad courtesy of iOS 11, from the ability to drag-and-drop elements from one side of the split screen to the other and the new, persistent app dock, you'd think Apple would toss in a feature that's been standard on Android for years: user profiles, perfect for letting family members in a one-iPad household create their own personal iPad spaces.

If you've been waiting for Android-like user profiles to arrive on iOS, bad news: they're still missing in iOS 11.

For whatever reason, though (privacy concerns, perhaps?), Apple has yet again passed on adding user profiles to the iPhone or iPad. That means if you share your iPad with your toddler or teenager, you're sharing all your iPad data, too, including your e-mail, your open browser tabs, your Facebook app, everything.

Android has really spoiled me with its "automatic rules" for Do Not Disturb mode. With automatic rules, you can set up multiple Do Not Disturb schedules for weeknights, weekends, meetings, and any other scenarios you dream up. For example, I have Do Not Disturb set to turn itself off early (as in 6 a.m.) on weekday mornings, while on weekends, Do Not Disturb keeps things quiet until about 8.

Android's "automatic rules" let you create multiple Do Not Disturb schedules, as opposed to the single Do Not Disturb schedule in iOS 11.

In iOS 11, though, Do Not Disturb mode still lets you set onlya single schedule, meaning you can't set Do Not Disturb to give you more quiet time on weekends or during meetings.

Yes, the new "Do Not Disturb While Driving" feature (which automatically silences notifications whenever your iPhone senses you're driving) is a nice innovation, but it's too bad iOS 11 didn't catch up to Android's Do Not Disturb features.

As with previous versions of Apple's mobile software, iOS 11 lets you perform quick web searches on selected text via Spotlight, iOS's universal search feature. That's helpful if you want a deep search on a narrow selection of text, but sometimes I'm looking for a broader search of everything on my screen.

Android's "screen search" feature lets you do a one-tap Google search on everything that's on your screen, a feat that iOS 11 has yet to master.

Here's where Android's Screen Search feature comes in handy. With a single tap of the What's on my screen button in Google Assistant, Android will scan the entire screen and return any relevant search results, handy if you want a quick, 360-degree cheat sheet on a news article or web page. Pretty neat, and there's no real equivalent on iOS, not even once iOS 11 arrives.

Here's an Android feature I'd sorely miss even though I know it's more cosmetic than anything else. The "Clear All" button on Android's Overview screen instantly closes all your open app windows, leaving you with a soothing "No recent items" message when you tap the Overview button again. For a neat-freak like me, tapping the Clear Allbutton never gets old.

The "Clear All" button on Android's Overview screen might be the feature that Android-to-iOS 11 switchers miss the most.

On iOS, thoughand yes, this includes iOS 11there's no easy way to clear out the massive stack of app windows on the multitasking screen, forcing you to flick up on dozens of individual windows until the coast is clear.

Now, I'm sure iOS comes with marvelous under-the-hood tools that manage the resources used by your apps and automatically suspends those that have been sitting untouched in the background for too long.

Still, though, I know it'll kill me the first time my thumb reaches for the non-existent Clear All button on my new iPhone 8 (assuming I actually make the big leap).

You've probably heard about the new storage-saving features in iOS 11, particularly when it comes to the storage-hogging Photos app.

iCloud Photo Library will help shave some of the storage space consumed by your iPhone snapshots, but Google Photos for Android can wipe all local pictures and videos, perfect for keeping photo storage to an absolute minimum.

For example, Apple announced support for a new image format (HEIF, for "High Efficiency Image Format") that can halve the amount of storage gobbled up by your snapshots.

Also coming in iOS 11: shortcuts that do a better job of recommending storage-saving features like iCloud Photo Library, which uploads all your pictures and videos to the cloud and then automatically pares down the number of images sitting on your iPhone or iPad.

Those are worthwhile improvements, but here's something I'd sorely miss if I went back to iOS: the "free up space" feature in Android's Photos app, which instantly zaps each and every local snapshot and video stored on your handset.

Thanks to the "free up space" feature, photos take up less than 100MB of space on my 16GB Nexus 5X. On the other hand, the Photos app on my old iPhone 6 consumes a ridiculous 17GB of storage, even with iCloud Photo Library turned on (and yes, with the Optimize iPhone Storage option enabled).

Bonus tip: The iOS version of Google Photos has a "free up space" feature just like its Android counterpart, meaning you could clear up tons of storage space on your iPhone or iPad by uploading your photos to Google and then using the "free up space" option to delete your local copies. Keep in mind, though, that if you're using Google Photos and iCloud Photo Library at the same time, wiping your local images and videos with Google Photo's "free up space" feature will also delete those photos from iCloud, so make sure all your local image files are safely backed up first.

As with the latest version of Google Keyboard for Android, iOS 11 will bring symbol shortcuts to letter keys on the iPad keyboard, handy for saving a few keystrokes when you need to type a number key, an ampersand, or another common symbol.

Thanks to iOS 11, symbol shortcuts on letter keys (shown here on Google Keyboard for Android phones) are finally coming to the iPad; not so for iPhone, unfortunately.

That's a welcome change, but unfortunately, iOS 11's so-called "QuickType" keyboard is only coming to iPad, not iPhone. Now, you could argue that the iPhone keypad is too small for symbol shortcuts, but the shortcuts on Google Keyboard work just fine on my five-inch Nexus 5X.

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6 great Android features missing from iOS 11 - PCWorld

Jefferson Graham , USA TODAY 12:04 p.m. EDT June 19, 2017

by Brian Merchant

(Little, Brown and Company)

in Non-Fiction

In the last 10years, the Apple iPhone has changed our lives in more ways than we can imagine.

Remember when we went to restaurants and walked down the street without staring at oursmartphones? How we checked our e-mail once or twice a day instead of every minute and had a work-free weekend without touching basewith co-workers and bosses?

Thank the iPhone for the always-on culture, for building the app economy that brought ride-hailing cab alternatives, visual dating tools and the constant sharing of upload-from-anywhere travel photos.

As we approach the 10th anniversary of the iPhoneon June 29, there's a great book in this, and not just the birth of the iPhone, but how it's evolved in the last decadeas well.

The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone(Little, Brown, 380pp., **out of four stars) by Brian Merchant, an editor at Motherboard, isn't it, unfortunately.

In a nutshell, Merchant's bookdwells on Apple's penchant for secrecy (old news,don't we all know this?) and expands beyond the basic story of the device's birth with long passages on the history of touch screen, gyroscopes and other smartphone features.

In this Jan. 9, 2007, file photo, Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds up an iPhone at the Macworld Conference in San Francisco.(Photo: Paul Sakuma, AP)

The iPhone wasn't just Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' idea. Credit goes to an overworked and under-appreciatedteam of engineers who did the grunt work and came up with many of the features. When Merchant focuses on the basic history, he's in good territory. It's a great story with Jobs changing his mind on several key details at the last minute, andthe iPhone not being finished and looking like it wouldn't make the planned Jan.7, 2007 reveal at the Macworldconference. (It went on sale six months later.)

Merchant connected with many of the key engineers from the iPhone team, which isn't an easy thing to do, as Apple frowns oncurrent and past employees talking in an un-controlled environment. He expands the story by spending time in China, where more than200 million iPhones are mass-produced yearly, at the Foxconn plants. He somehow manages to sneak in to the ultra-secretive facility, where many workers have responded to the crushing hours and mind-numbing work by committing suicide from the top of the building.

But I missed the parts of the story that Merchant left out. Hedecided not to focus on the birthand growth of Google's Android operating system, which now has an 85 percentmarket share, or the rise of Apple's chief rival Samsung, and the Galaxy S line of smartphones.

Author Brian Merchant.(Photo: Cara Robbins)

He skipsout on how Tim Cook, who took over as CEO of Apple after Jobs' death in 2011, has been skimpy on innovation, but has built the iPhone into an even bigger business that now represents two-thirds of Apple's revenues. Nary a word is said about the iPad, the Apple Watchor what Apple will do when the inevitable happensand the life cycle for the iPhone comes to an end.

Well, the material is there. Perhaps it's time to get to work on the sequel.

See the rest here:

'The One Device': How the iPhone changed our lives - USA TODAY

We tested data speeds on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless in 30 US cities. Find out which network is the fastest where you live.

Our drive through the Southeast took us from the Triangle to the Triad, down I-85 to Charlotte and Atlanta with a stop in Greenville, down I-75 to Orlando, over to Tampa, and then back across on FL-70 to West Palm Beach and Miami.

As we saw in the Northeast, AT&T did the best on our Southeastern segment, in this case with the best upload and download speeds. Verizon, long renowned for excellent coverage, came a close second.

But in my mind, the big news here is that T-Mobile is now a viable player in North Carolina, where it struggled with coverage for a while. T-Mobile was in the green all though our NC drive, while Sprint coverage dropped a few times north of Charlotte.

Verizon may be a better choice than AT&T in Florida, because of coverage. AT&T's LTE network struggled a bit on our cross-Florida drive, with dropouts in the swampy middle of the state along FL-70. Verizon kept on truckin' with LTE the whole time.

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 9 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, one of the hosts of the daily PCMag Live Web show and speaks frequently in mass media on cell-phone-related issues. His commentary has appeared on ABC, the BBC, the CBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, and in newspapers from San Antonio, Texas to Edmonton, Alberta. Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer, having contributed... More

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Fastest Mobile Networks 2017 - PCMag

The pair went out for a meal in identical outfits

JODIE Marshs Twitter followers have been left stunned by the glamour girls age-defying mum.

The busty beauty, 38, shared four pictures of herself hanging out with her mum Kristina and fans wasted no time in praising her youthful good looks.

Jodie Marsh

Her first upload read: I took my parents out for a meal today & by coincidence my mum and I both wore black wide leg jumpsuits. We look like twins

When a fan retweeted it, calling Jodies mum a sort, she added: And can I just point out that my mum is nearly 70!!! (She wont mind me saying). Shes bloody amazing and beautiful what a woman

With the surprising age revealed, her Twitter followers went into overdrive, with one writing: 70?????? Have you checked her birth certificate??

Jodie Marsh

Another said: She looks amazing. What fantastic genes you have

Your mom looks stunning for nearly 70 and @JodieMarsh you are always stunning , gushed one.

ITV

A fourth enthused: Your mum is gorgeous Jodie, can see where you get your looks from

Earlier this month Jodie said she considers herself seven-years celibate and doesnt count the fumbles she had during her short marriage to James Placido.

In a revealing chat, the star explained that she was celibate for the five years prior to tying-the-knot with her now ex-husband and doesnt rate the passionate moments that occurred during their short marriage.

ITV

I dont count the blip I had when I married that t***** because the sex was so s***, so Id say its been seven years now, Jodie told Heat magazine.

She added she doesnt miss sex, saying: I dont think about it and I dont miss it. I think Im dead from the waist down. I dont have any urges or feelings. I honestly get more excited about a cheese souffle.

Got a story? email digishowbiz@the-sun.co.uk or call us direct on 02077824220

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Jodie Marsh's fans left shocked by her 'stunning' 69-year-old mum - The Sun